The Crusade of Vengeance
by RedDeadBerry
Summary: Grabbing the data and getting out was supposed to be easy. What was supposed to be an excruciating amount of jail time and a large fine for property damage turned into a golden opportunity to help get their revenge.


**Chapter 1: Breaking and Entering**

The night was a dense blackness that seemingly absorbed all the stars and lights except for the shattered moon.

Under the shattered moon, a girl lay in wait. As the wind flapped her buttoned coat, and as the whispers of the dim-lit sky fluttered, her impatience was growing. And yet, despite her impatience, her heart was pounding.

The impatient girl stood by the door of a supposedly abandoned building.

What on Remnant was taking _him _so long? she wondered. He usually gets the job done quickly, doesn't he?

With perfect timing, her scroll rang.

Immediately, the girl's hand shot towards her phone, and she pressed her ear against it.

"Wait," a guy's voice said. Then she heard what sounded like a _thud_. "I'm just 'bout done, Cordelia."

With a sigh, she closed her eyes and silently shook her head. Her cousin, Aidan Auburn, was always weird and acted really eccentric sometimes.

"Look, I got the job done, alright? Stop sulking and get in, Deli," he said exasperatedly. She imagined that he was nonchalantly scratching the back of his head.

Cordelia could have whacked him on the head for making her worry like that.

Regardless, she walked in, her eyes catching upon the guard that was splayed across the floor.

She halted and took a glance at him, who was eating a sandwich.

A..._sandwich_.

She marched towards him and whacked him on the head, making sure that it hurt.

"What?" He gave a confused expression, rubbing the back of his head while muttering. "Thank god for aura,"

Aiden indeed did have a sandwich. On whole wheat bread was layered with tomato, lettuce, spinach, chipotle sauce, ham, salami, and some slices of pepperoni. It was a great sandwich.

Cordelia saw it in a different light however. She gestured at the sandwich and shot Aidan a frustrated look.

"Look, I was hungry, okay? Most of the guys were already knocked out about fifteen minutes ago," he said, giving the cliff-notes of what happened.

It was her turn to give a confused look.

He shrugged, "Like I said, most of them. One happened to have walked in while I was making a sandwich."

She blinked at him and shook her head, smiling softly at his ridiculous antics.

Aiden pointed in a random direction, "Up the stairs, third door to the left. That's where the computer is."

Both of them made their way from the entrance to the room with the necessary data they needed. While walking over several unconscious individuals.

"Here, we are," Aiden gobbled down the last of his sandwich.

The room had several file cabinets but a single computer on a desk in front of a window of the well lit room. Cordelia walks over to it, thumb drive in hand, and started to downloading the files.

"Hold on," he said, interrupting her. Cordelia was about to shoot him a confused glance until she heard it as well.

Off in the distance, a loud thump followed with several footsteps echoed throughout the once empty warehouse. Besides the unconscious men Aiden took out, they weren't alone. He ran over to the window, opened it, and looked out to see several parked cars out front.

He had only one thing to say.

"Shit. I thought I double checked the whole warehouse."

Cordelia thought about it. A mistake? Did he oversee an essential component of the facility?

"Oh crap," Aidan said, tiredly dragging a hand down his face.

Concerned, Cordelia's gaze shot around the factory, analyzing everything. Footsteps, tremors within the ground, _anything_.

"I forgot the bathroom!" Aidan exclaimed.

She halted. The...The bathroom?

Flabbergasted, she slowly turned to look at Aidan with widened eyes.

"Okay, look," he blurted, waving his arms around. "I only went into the mens' bathroom, alright?"

She shook her head in disappointment. She knew that he was probably lying.

"Okay fine, I didn't check the bathrooms at all," he admitted, "We can talk about this now or later, Deli. We've got people coming after us, and we have to hurry."

That was most certainly true, but Cordelia wasn't sure if she should have been taking advice from the guy who was eating a sandwich during a mission.

He ran his fingers through his hair and frustratedly said, "Look, I'll distract them the best of my abilities. You keep an eye on the download and beat the crap out of whoever walks into this room." He stretched out his arms and unclipped his weapon from his belt. "I highly doubt they'll turn us into the police. So this is the best we got at the moment."

The lantern was fog-coloured steel. It resembled a gray rectangular box that possessed a circular handle on top of it. On one of its sides, the eyes and the smile of a jack-o-lantern was engraved onto it.

He kicked open the door and sprinted down the hall. A single explosion soon follows, ruptured throughout the hallway, sending a tremor throughout the factory.

She rolled her eyes and focused on the computer.

Cordelia took a look at the computer.

**Approximate time: [15] minutes remaining...**

She sighed what felt like the hundredth time this day. She hoped he knew what he was doing.

* * *

"I don't know what I'm doing," Aiden grunted, slamming a goon's head onto the concrete floor.

He was hiding behind a crate after attracting almost every one of the reinforcements at him.

Hurriedly, he yanked open the side of the lantern and hastily shoved in a canister that donned the image of a dark, gray cloud on its side.

A shower of footsteps were hammering onto the floor, quickly converging towards him. With his heart racing against his chest, he took a deep breath in and a deep breath out. He shot his hand into his coat and grabbed his gas mask. It leered at him with the crooked red smile painted onto the mask, a twisted malevolence radiating within.

"Alrighty then," Aiden muttered under his breath. He aimed his lantern towards the ceiling and pulled a trigger located on the inside of the handle. Within a second, smoke was erupting from the lantern, engulfing the room in a thick fog.

"Shit, I can't see anything!" a goon yelled.

Another goon coughed, rasping, "Someone turn on those fans!"

"Got it!"

The large industrial fans above their heads came to life, slowly whisking out the smoke.

Quickly, he rolled to the side and positioned himself behind a large crate. He pressed it against the crate and turned it to the air dust setting, the lantern glows a bright green. Within a second, it blasted the crate forward like a bullet, making it crash into the criminals.

Immediately, guns spilled from the crate.

"We'll take care of this guy! Check the rest of the factory to see if anyone else is here," a man yelled. With his word, half of the criminals split up and sprinted towards Cordelia's location.

With haste, the remaining enemies aimed their guns at Aiden and fired. Aiden maneuvered his lantern behind him, and with the pull of the second trigger, he shot himself into them.

Immediately, he kicked a goon's head once he got into contact. As he landed, a man charged towards him and prepared to punch him, but Aidan kicked the man's knee in the side, making him fall. As he slung the lantern to render the man unconscious, Aidan saw a gun pointed at him in the corner of his eye, but before he could do anything, Aidan yanked him by the shirt, tripped him, and slammed him on the ground, delivering the final blow with a stomp on his chest.

Another herd of goons were sprinting towards him, exclaiming wildly.

Quickly, he turned his lantern to the ice dust setting, his lantern emanating a glacier-like blue. He chucked the lantern at one of the criminals' heads and swiftly followed the attack with a strike across the jaw and a kick, knocking them into the person behind them. As the lantern ricocheted back at him, Aiden caught the lantern, aimed it at the last attacker, and froze their legs in place.

Seeing that he took care of most of the attackers, he exhaled. He then proceeded to eject the empty smoke canister as he muttered, "I wonder how Deli is doing right now."

"H-Hello?" one of the attackers frantically asked, his phone shaking. "There's a big problem in-"

Without a second thought, Aidan slammed the lantern against the man's face, making him collapse.

The small radio by the man's side crackled to life as a voice said, "We will be there in five minutes. Hold on."

Aidan cursed under his breath. "You really shouldn't have done that," he snarled at him. He marched over to the radio and crushed it, making it shatter in a hectic mess.

The man tried to crawl backward, his arms flailing, but the ice trapped him in place. He whimpered, "Wait! Please! Don't, I-I beg of you!"

Aidan didn't bother to listen. He stomped on the criminal's chest, making him cry out.

* * *

As a man rushed towards her, aiming his gun at Cordelia, he exclaimed, "You bitch! What the hell-"

Cordelia whirled around and heel-kicked the man's face. With a second spin, she tapped the tip of her left blade on another enemy's foot, encasing his legs with an explosion of ice while slicing up his weapons with her right blade. The barrel of his gun slid off, the edge glowing red from the heat of her blade.

This was supposed to be a simple mission. Sneak in, knock out anyone inside the building, steal the data, and leave. Now it's just another unnecessary fight.

Turning back to the trapped victim, Cordelia rolled her eyes seeing the man trying to break his foot free from its icy prison.

"Let me go you-" She slaps the back of her blade on the side of the man's face, trapping his mouth in a sheet of ice.

Her eyes glowed green as images flooded her head, organizing themselves in a cobweb of events.

Three men standing in front of an open door.

A fight breaking out.

The screen reading: **[2] minutes remaining…**

Cordelia's head shot towards that familiar open door, where she knew that three men were going to rush through. She hurriedly sprinted towards the door and pressed her ear against it. Footsteps were rampaging within the corridor, but they were specifically getting closer to Cordelia. She anticipated and anticipated, and at just the right time, she slammed the heel of her foot into the door, hitting the side of a criminal and sending him through the air in a bullet of ice.

The man had crashed against the two other men that Cordelia had seen.

She hurriedly glanced at the computer to see the downloading progress.

**Approximate time: [2] minutes remaining…**

It seemed that it was almost there.

The sound of gunfire rippled through the air like explosions. Cordelia glanced through the window and noticed with shock that there were a plethora of cars waiting outside.

Reinforcements. The reinforcements that these criminals had were here.

What on Remnant was Aiden doing? Did he know?

The moment she stepped into the hallway, a goon spotted her and charged at her, with their guns firing and blades at the ready.

Cordelia took a deep breath in, everything that will be, is flowing in like a piano scale.

Cordelia nonchalantly walked towards them, predicting the trajectory of the bullets and blocking all of the gunshots with her sword.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" the man yelled at her, frantically shooting bullets at her, eventually running out of bullets.

Then the man quickly shot in rapid succession, a few hitting Cordelia. Cordelia grimaced in pain and got close enough to him to slash him clean across the chest, eventually hitting his head with the hilt of her saber.

He fell to the ground, and Cordelia stood over him with cold eyes. Cordelia kicked him to the side of his face, stomping her heel on his face. His eyes rolled back and he fainted.

Suddenly, an explosion rocked the facility. _Aidan._

Frantically, she ran back to the computer. Upon seeing that the download was finished, she yanked the flash drive out the computer and sprinted towards the sound of the explosion.

Down the hall and to the right, she repeated in her head.

There, she saw Aiden swung his lantern into a man's stomach, making him fling backward into a crate and another man.

Quickly, Cordelia mecha-shifted one of her sabers into a pistol and shot an attacker who was about to strike Aiden from behind.

Aiden saw her, smiled, and exclaimed, "About time for you to join in!"

Cordelia, wasting no time, had both of her pistols at the ready and fired at anyone who she could have identified as an adversary. One of them thought it was smart enough to charge at her only to receive several thrusts to the chest and leg sweep.

They continued to take down more and more enemies until their numbers faded completely. Now, the bodies of the unconscious criminals were scattered throughout the facility.

"Well I suppose that's that," Aidan said while stretching his arms. "Do you have the data?"

Cordelia gave a quick nod while holding out the thumb drive.

"Great. Now let's-"

With a hoarse yell, Aiden was sent flying through some creates, a large rectangular metal fist taking his place.

Cordelia's head snapped to the unforeseen enemy, but the same fist had bulleted into her stomach and sent her rocketing through the air. On the ground, she coughed and stumbled as she stood up again along with Aidan.

Both of them looked up to see their attacker.

It was a man with slicked back gray hair and a goatee. He donned black shades along with a black and gray suit. What stood out, however, were his arms that were shaped in an almost blocky metallic shape from his fists to his elbows.

"You two," the man scowled with a pissed off voice, "come into my warehouse, break my goods, my men, and think you can get away with this shit? Well, guess what? My boss is gonna be pissed about this, so do me a favor and DROP DEAD!"

Aidan blinked at the man, turned to Cordelia, and asked, "So, Cordelia...do you know who the hell this guy is?"

Cordelia was getting tired of Aidan's idiocy at this point, and she would have hit him if they weren't in a serious situation.

This man, named Wolf Fogman, was wanted for conducting multiple bank robberies. He had disappeared two years ago, and now, he was apparently active again.

Like a bull, Fogman relentlessly charged towards them. He hauled his fist upwards and swung at Aidan, who dodged. Before Fogman could retaliate with a counterattack, Cordelia swung her swords at him, making him back off to a safer distance.

Aidan switched to fire dust within his lantern to shoot fireballs at Fogman. In an instant, waves of heat and cinders of fire licked the ground and the air. Fogman, however, managed to roll and propel himself forward, dodging the flames and trying once more to attack the two of them.

Aidan's hand shot to the lantern's turning mechanism. Immediately, he twisted it to the air dust setting. He targeted the air dust at Cordelia and shot the air dust, propelling her forward. Like a bullet, she darted through the air towards Fogman. She then twisted the sabers so that it was aimed towards Fogan's neck, but as the silver blades were about to slice him, Fogman jerked to the left. Her blades plunged into the ground. She saw Fogman prepare to punch her again, but Cordelia firmly gripped the handle of her blades and used it to propel herself upwards to kick Fogman square in the jaw.

He stumbled backwards, his hand reaching towards his mouth. He screamed at her, "You'll pay for that, bitch!"

Suddenly, a fireball landed upon Frogman's skull, exploding outwards in a sudden burst. He cried out and stumbled, glaring at Aidan with death in his eyes.

However, at that moment, Cordelia slashed Fogman. Like a dance, she whirled around, dodging every single attack and seeing through every single one of his moves. The man was good at hiding it, but she could see that every punch was decreasing rapidly in strength.

Cordelia's sword bulleted towards his stomach. He hoarsely cried out and bent over instinctively, giving her the perfect chance to do an uppercut to his chin with her saber's hilt. It didn't matter what he did; Cordelia was able to see what he was going to do, and she was able to predict every action he was going to take.

Fogman, now, looked like he was going to collapse. He was breathing heavily as his eyes nearly roared with rage.

Aidan stared back, his eyes pulsing with rage. In hot jets of fire, two explosions darted at him. Fogman leaped to the left, narrowly dodging the flurry of fireballs. With a swift change in direction, he took the opportunity to charge at Aidan while simultaneously dodging more fireballs on the way.

Gritting his teeth, Aiden twisted his lantern-a bold blue tint glowing from it. Blasts of ice penetrated the air , rippling through the air in ice blue torrents. Fogman was able to dodge at first, but when he accidentally stumbled, the relentless ice rumbling as it collided with Fogman's head. Before he could even cry out, Aidan twisted his lantern again and created a rock pillar that devastated Fogman as he flew upwards.

Without mercy, another rock pillar slammed Fogman down into Cordelia, whose sabers stabbed into Fogman's sides like fangs and immobilized him. She quickly shifted one of her swords into a pistol and shot Fogman, emptying an entire magazine of bullets into him.

With Fogman immobilized by Cordelia, Aidan took the opportunity to switch to ice dust and encase the criminal's limbs in ice. Fogman coughed, groaning. He struggled from the cages of ice, the crackling sounds of the ice shards breaking from the inside rippling through the air.

Cordelia, however, switched her other saber into a pistol and shot him three times. Fogman's eyes rolled backwards as he was struggling to remain conscious. Aiden, not wanting to deal with the guy anymore, switched to air dust, blasted himself up into the air, and propelled himself downwards into his ribs. With Fogman's aura flickering like a broken light, he finally fainted, his arms and legs splayed out.

Aiden ran over to Cordelia, grabbed her shoulders, and asked with a slight panic, "Are you alright?"

Cordelia gave a simple, quick nod.

"That's good. Anyway, we need to get out of-"

Police officers kicked down the door with their firearms pointed at Aidan, Cordelia, and the defeated Wolf Fogman.

"Freeze!" the officers exclaimed at everyone, analyzing the scene.

Aidan and Cordelia dropped their weapons and held their hands up, not wanting to cause trouble with the police. Two of the officers, with their guns drawn, walked over, handcuffing Aiden and Cordelia as one of them informed, "You two are under arrest by the Vale PD."

Exhausted, they calmly complied as the cuffs were put on.

In a monotone, tired voice, Aiden had one, simple word to say:

"...Shit."


End file.
